Coordinated Balochistan attacks kill at least 10 security personnel

Coordinated attacks across Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan early Saturday have killed at least 10 security personnel and struck multiple security and civil installations, officials said, in one of the most extensive insurgent operations in the region in years.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the toll for security forces was 10 and praised responding units for killing insurgents, adding the government blames an Indian-backed grouping it calls "Fitna al-Hindustan," a label applied to the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army and allied separatist networks. The Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility in a statement to news agencies and said it targeted military installations, police and civil administration officials.

Attacks began almost simultaneously in the pre-dawn hours, with officials reporting strikes at a high-security prison, multiple police stations and paramilitary posts across the province. Quetta, the provincial capital, saw blasts and firefights; in Gwadar gunmen struck civilian areas and a courthouse, and a police official, Ibad Khan, said 11 civilians were killed there, "among them three women and three children", and that police, who responded quickly, "killed all the attackers."

Tactics included gun assaults, grenades and, according to the militant claim, suicide bombings. Insurgents also destroyed sections of rail track, prompting Pakistan Railways to suspend services from Balochistan to other provinces. Provincial authorities reported banks were robbed and a police station and dozens of vehicles torched during the unrest. Local hospitals received the wounded; images from Quetta show security personnel shifting injured people at medical facilities.

Casualty counts for the attackers vary by source and time window. Naqvi said security forces killed 37 insurgents in gunbattles on Saturday. Provincial government posts on X and other statements gave higher totals: a provincial spokesman, Shahid Rind, wrote that "more than 70 terrorists had been killed at different locations by security forces across the province over the past two days" and added that "terrorists have attempted to carry out attacks at a few places in Balochistan, which the police and the Frontier Corps (FC) thwarted by taking timely action." Provincial leaders subsequently cited figures of 67 insurgents killed on Saturday and 108 over a 48-hour period. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti posted: "Over the past 12 months, security forces in Balochistan have sent more than 700 terrorists to hell, with around 70 terrorists eliminated in just the last two days alone."

The strikes come a day after the military said it raided militant hideouts earlier in the week and killed 41 fighters in separate operations, underscoring an intensification of clash-and-counterclash dynamics. Analysts say the scale and coordination of Saturday’s attacks are unusual for Balochistan and risk escalating both the security response and political rhetoric.

Beyond the human toll, the assault struck strategic infrastructure central to Pakistan’s economic plans. Gwadar, a linchpin of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and a major port project, suffered civilian casualties and direct attacks, while destruction of rail tracks has suspended freight and passenger links that support regional trade. The immediate economic impact will be felt in disrupted logistics and heightened security costs; longer term, repeated large-scale assaults could deter foreign and domestic investment in mining, energy and port-related projects that already contend with political and security risk.

The government has framed the operation as part of a sustained counterinsurgency drive. Independent verification of militant casualty totals and the scope of damage was incomplete as of Saturday evening, and officials’ allegations of foreign backing and cross-border sanctuaries remain contested. Security forces said they were pursuing remaining assailants as provincial and federal authorities worked to consolidate figures and restore services.